To be specific, I'm wondering exactly how careful I need to be with my Galaxy Nexus compared to other phones to avoid bricking specifically. I make Nandroid backups regularly, so I'm not worried about losing data. But is it easy to outright brick the phone even when taking all precautions? I ask because I just recently bricked a Samsung SII within 24 hours of purchase, and I don't want to lose my new Galaxy Nexus in the same way. Most of my experience has been with the Nexus S so far, and I'd mostly be flashing Cyanogenmod and probably a custom kernel here and there, again, performing backups regularly and whatnot. Is there anything that could easily brick the phone, and are there any precautions to take against that? Thanks.
This phone is pretty hard to brick unless you blatantly flash radios or ROMs for the LTE version of the phone. Kinda surprised you were able to hard brick a SGSII. Samsung phones are pretty tough to completely brick when there are tools like Odin...
Just don't make stupid choices and you won't brick your phone. Fastboot is your friend.
I had the Telus version, which was just different enough from the T-Mobile version that a couple of basic things weren't working post-root, and I ended up being unable to connect to Odin, have the system recognize my SD card, or boot into recovery. So I'm just not wanting to have something like that happen again, where none of my tools are working. I appreciate the reply though, I figured the Galaxy Nexus would be a pretty safe bet in general. Does anyone know any particular quirks with the Canadian version, as I'm pretty sure that contributed to my being screwed previously.
feanarosurion said:
Does anyone know any particular quirks with the Canadian version, as I'm pretty sure that contributed to my being screwed previously.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They're all pretty much identical hardware. For example you can flash Google images straight onto any i9250, regardless of what firmware it shipped with.
Thanks, that's helpful to know. I'm definitely glad the hardware is the same with the exception of the lte version.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
feanarosurion said:
Thanks, that's helpful to know. I'm definitely glad the hardware is the same with the exception of the lte version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, that's what to look out for. Don't want to flash for the wrong version.
I lost my EMEI the other day and subsequently lost my 3/4g data. I restored a backup through CWM and then I noticed I lost it.
I did everything to get it back. I followed the steps on XDA using various tools to reinsert my EMEI, and then another to get my data connection back. Neither works. Then I unrooted to restore it back to factory.
Zip.
Finally I called tmobile and after doing everything they said (including a factory reset) they agreed to replace it. It took three days of dealing with them. On the second day the technician told me that this has been a big problem with the Galaxy SIII. He said it's been happening to all the carriers.
So maybe it has nothing to do with flashing after all....
Maybe EVERYBODY is flashing? EMEI or IMEI?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1808408
its a know issue. check out this thread for a possable fix.
jdyowa said:
I lost my EMEI the other day and subsequently lost my 3/4g data. I restored a backup through CWM and then I noticed I lost it.
I did everything to get it back. I followed the steps on XDA using various tools to reinsert my EMEI, and then another to get my data connection back. Neither works. Then I unrooted to restore it back to factory.
Zip.
Finally I called tmobile and after doing everything they said (including a factory reset) they agreed to replace it. It took three days of dealing with them. On the second day the technician told me that this has been a big problem with the Galaxy SIII. He said it's been happening to all the carriers.
So maybe it has nothing to do with flashing after all....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's IMEI, not EMEI
It has EVERYTHING to do with flashing.
This has been an issue with Samsung phones since the Nexus S (and the original Galaxy S phones as well I believe...I first experienced it on the Nexus S).
The difference is...is the international SGSIII and earlier phones were able to fix the issue by backing up the efs folder.
On the US (read dual core snapdragon) variants it is no longer contained there.
You need a different method of backup/restore. I believe the link posted above is the answer.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda premium
Babydoll25 said:
It's IMEI, not EMEI
It has EVERYTHING to do with flashing.
This has been an issue with Samsung phones since the Nexus S (and the original Galaxy S phones as well I believe...I first experienced it on the Nexus S).
The difference is...is the international SGSIII and earlier phones were able to fix the issue by backing up the efs folder.
On the US (read dual core snapdragon) variants it is no longer contained there.
You need a different method of backup/restore. I believe the link posted above is the answer.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IMEI...yeah. every time I say that, I screw it up.
I was able to reinsert it, but it didn't bring back my data signal. I'll look at that link to see if it's different. Yeah when the guy told me it was happening to everyone, I was thinking that they haven't caught on to people flashing roms yet. However, years ago when I had many 3 g slide I sent it back for warranty with it still rooted and they never said a word. It still worked but the screen had a shadow under it.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
jdyowa said:
IMEI...yeah. every time I say that, I screw it up.
I was able to reinsert it, but it didn't bring back my data signal. I'll look at that link to see if it's different. Yeah when the guy told me it was happening to everyone, I was thinking that they haven't caught on to people flashing roms yet. However, years ago when I had many 3 g slide I sent it back for warranty with it still rooted and they never said a word. It still worked but the screen had a shadow under it.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, they don't care if your phone is rooted or at least they never cared about any of my phones that were rooted. Before sending my rooted phone back to them for warranty replacement I did always make sure I loaded the stock Rom though. Tmobile doesn't care. They just throw the phone into a bin. Once the bin is filled with enough pbones, they put them into a box and send them back to Samsung.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
jrwingate6 said:
Yea, they don't care if your phone is rooted or at least they never cared about any of my phones that were rooted. Before sending my rooted phone back to them for warranty replacement I did always make sure I loaded the stock Rom though. Tmobile doesn't care. They just throw the phone into a bin. Once the bin is filled with enough pbones, they put them into a box and send them back to Samsung.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not necessarily I've seen customers who have been charged for being rooted, yet I have sent a phone that was rooted without being charged too with things that may not be obvious like physical damage or water damage its a gamble on how thorough tmobile decides to be when they inspect it stock rom and deleting super user is always a good idea.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
I've been using the ariel ROM from the att forum, and love it. But in one of the threads in this forum (I don't know which) someone said that flashing roms for different models can remove phone (asurian) insurance somehow.
My question is, can/will that happen with this rom? If it is possible, is there a way to modify the rom to make it think it's a T999 rom safely without messing too much up, like through the build.prop or something?
Sorry if that's a noobish question, but thanks for any help and advice.
*edit*
so i took the plunge and decided to see what i could do to change stuff around on the ariel ROM for the att variant. from what i can tell, what i did worked. my phone reads as the SGH-T999 instead of the I797. and there seems to be no compromised functionality and IMEI is still intact.
You run the risk of losing the imei number of the phone.
Sent from my SGH-T999
If your build.prop is changed to the att model then T-Mobile might see through the network that it's reporting your device as an att model, which they could share with the insurance company and since your insurance is for the T-Mobile version and not the att version they could deny claim.
This is just a thought and total speculation by me. I don't know any of that for a fact.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
lazarat said:
You run the risk of losing the imei number of the phone.
Sent from my SGH-T999
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to run an AT&T ROM for that to happen.
Sent from my SGH-T999
So basically, I'm SOL in this department? That's a bummer, I really liked that rom. Thanks for the info though
so i updated the op, i decided to try some edits i was thinking might work and they did work. just thought it would be good to share.
I have a Telus S3 and I know I/we (S3 users) have to be responsible and backup our imei info in case a flashed ROM wipes that data (supposedly not common but a known issue)
I just bought my wife a Telus S2X (t989) off eBay and I'm rooting it for her (and flashing) when it gets in. I've searched these forums and haven't found anything specific about this being an issue on these models so I just wanted to ask if its possible.
We have a small process to back it up on the S3 but not even sure if that will work on this phone.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
no need. for the gs2x/t989/skyrocket that issue is almost non existent. between the three phones over the past year I saw one instance only. even then, your phone has the sticker with the imei inside it under the battery
icenight89 said:
no need. for the gs2x/t989/skyrocket that issue is almost non existent. between the three phones over the past year I saw one instance only. even then, your phone has the sticker with the imei inside it under the battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
I know about the sticker behind the battery, the injecting of the imei is far worse than the backing up. Just wanted to make sure it isn't as common as on the gs3
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Okay, so I've been on Tmobile since taking the dive into the wonderful world of Android. I had the S2 for a few months and thdn after becoming infatuated I went out and got me an S3. Recently I decided to move on to Sprint as the coverage I received at work was, well, nonexistent. So, I am completely new to CDMA and my beautiful new Note 2, and after reading through the forums I've discovered that I am bout back to square one. Well, maybe not entirely, but definitely been knocked back quite a bit. Which when considering I've only been involved in the xda community for about 9 months pretty much leaves me with the feeling that I'm stuck in Paris with no map and no translator. So, I was hoping I could reach out to the wise and informed members of xda and ask a broad, but simple, question. What do I need to know so I don't F up my new mistress? I'm not asking for a tutorial on rooting or flashing, nothing generic. Just some helpful specifics. I saw somewhere that they were talking about resetting Wallet before flashing a new ROM or else it may be blocked on the phone, I guess, forever. I'm also unfamiliar with the modems and the updates yall have gotten. Etc, etc. And as I said, not looking for another, what is the benefit of rooting, what is CWM and TWRP, can I get rid of all the darned Sprint apps baloney. I was just hoping to basically just kinda do a crash course intro, a CDMA and/or L900 101 kinda thing so to speak. Any info you can offer up would be greatly appreciated!
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2
Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
Okay, so I've been on Tmobile since taking the dive into the wonderful world of Android. I had the S2 for a few months and thdn after becoming infatuated I went out and got me an S3. Recently I decided to move on to Sprint as the coverage I received at work was, well, nonexistent. So, I am completely new to CDMA and my beautiful new Note 2, and after reading through the forums I've discovered that I am bout back to square one. Well, maybe not entirely, but definitely been knocked back quite a bit. Which when considering I've only been involved in the xda community for about 9 months pretty much leaves me with the feeling that I'm stuck in Paris with no map and no translator. So, I was hoping I could reach out to the wise and informed members of xda and ask a broad, but simple, question. What do I need to know so I don't F up my new mistress? I'm not asking for a tutorial on rooting or flashing, nothing generic. Just some helpful specifics. I saw somewhere that they were talking about resetting Wallet before flashing a new ROM or else it may be blocked on the phone, I guess, forever. I'm also unfamiliar with the modems and the updates yall have gotten. Etc, etc. And as I said, not looking for another, what is the benefit of rooting, what is CWM and TWRP, can I get rid of all the darned Sprint apps baloney. I was just hoping to basically just kinda do a crash course intro, a CDMA and/or L900 101 kinda thing so to speak. Any info you can offer up would be greatly appreciated!
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The worst part about the android community, unfortunately, is the fragmentation of general knowledge. The rooting process for a Nexus is probably identical to a Note 2 but the names of everything and builds and versions are all different, so you have to learn new 'words' like it is a new language. Fortunately you have a great community so you just have to learn how to search for things. Check the general section for android development I think there is a sticky that has a glossory of terms that explains all the acronyms.
I've had mine for 3 months but I would still welcome a crash course as well.
Well I prefer twrp as my custom recovery. Depending on your firmware version you can root without your phone ever going to download mode. I did. I used exynos abuse to get root. Then used mobile odin to flash a new rom. Always reset google wallet if you are reseting or flashing a new rom. Its tempermental. I would stay around only the sprint veraion for now. There is a way to use roms from other note 2 variants. I believe its in the dev section. Recovery is standalone. So swirching roms doesnt change it. You cannot talk on the phone and be on the internet at the same time unless you are using wifi or 4glte. If you like to draw or doodle there is sketchbook mobile which is awesome. Btw ma7 is the most current firmware that I know of. Also you can sideload the google wallet apk with no extra work to get it working. Goodluck and read alot.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2
Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
what is the benefit of rooting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need root to do most modifications to your phone. I find that I need root for everyday stuff too (Titanium backup, Stweaks, Root app delete, etc).
Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
what is CWM and TWRP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ClockWork Mod and TeamWin Recovery Project. Both have custom recovery pieces. I personally had some troubles with CWM on this phone and just use Odin now. I head TWRP works better than CWM on the Note 2, but Odin is the Tool Samsung suggests. Note that TWRP is MUCH more feature-rich than Odin. You might choose TWRP (or CWM) if you wanted to flash stuff from your SD card rather than from your PC- good for jumping around between kernels on the fly, for example.
Odin and the other two are all ways to flash stuff to your phone. That's all Odin does; the other two have lots more features.
Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
can I get rid of all the darned Sprint apps baloney
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heck yeah! Simplest way is to root it and uninstall everything you don't like (Root App Delete from the Play Store seems to work pretty well; be sure you have a backup before you start blowing stuff away).
If you'd like to take it a step further, get a custom ROM that's been debloated; they normally require a full wipe, so bye bye sprint stuff. (Again, root it and back it up first!)
tpeef said:
You need root to do most modifications to your phone. I find that I need root for everyday stuff too (Titanium backup, Stweaks, Root app delete, etc).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate you taking the time to go through all that, but I think maybe I didn't explain too well what I was trying to get. I wasn't asking for the general info, just things specific to CDMA and the L900. Like what was replying about. Not trying to be a jerk, but I know there's already a thousand threads on recoverys, ROMs, and rooting. Just didn't wanna do anything to my phone that would be irreversible (i.e. The resetting Google Wallet thing) or something that would cause signal issues (I read stuff on flashing certain ROMs on certain modems may create issues). Stuff like that. Like I said though appreciate the time you took, and any info you may have like that would certainly be appreciated.
Sent from my cellular telephone
Oh I forgot. If you are on ljc expect to not go back to it if you update to ma7. For some reason lots of people have had trouble going back. It would cause slot of problems. Ma7 is just fine for me though. Great battery life and what not. I would say do the update. If you are going custom rom and are currently unrooted just do the ota. Or there is a firmware file around here to flash. I updated firmware before going to ma7. Although I was already rooted using exynos abuse. Ma7 eliminates the exploit. So be prepared to do that before going to ma7. If there is anything I am missing that you still need answers to or don't understand just ask. Its also a good habit to update profile and prl when switching roms or modems.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2
patrao_n said:
...If you are going custom rom and are currently unrooted just do the ota. Or there is a firmware file around here to flash. I updated firmware before going to ma7. Although I was already rooted using exynos abuse. Ma7 eliminates the exploit. So be prepared to do that before going to ma7...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I picked up something along those lines from reading around. It took all of 15 minutes out of the box before I got all rooted with new ROMs being flashed after playing around on stock just to get a baseline with all the ROM hoping that was sure to follow. Needless to say I didn't read up on anything modem wise before doing all this as I, admittedly, jumped the gun a little (I was just so excited to have a whole new community with new dev teams and all these foreign ROMs to explore). I used Max's trusty galaxynote2root site to root (love that guy). And used the GalaxyNote2RootSprint.zip to obtain root. Then, went straight into the original development section and immediately flashed the absolutely amazing Liquid Smooth. Now I should say, I did receive a message saying the was an update to the phone through sprint and I did proceed with the OTA while dling the zip and giving root instructions a quick once over. So, I'm guessing that took care of going to ma7 for me? Cuz I'm definitely using the ma7 modem. Now I did leave my beloved aosp as I did want to see if I would actually use all the S pen features that aosp sadly doesn't offer us. I jumped around from Whapasaurous to Venom Ice a d finally to Macks All Star, but I'm assuming that unless it's totally different from GSM that flashing a new ROM has no effect on your modem (but by all means correct me if I'm wrong). So just wanna make sure I went about things the right way here.
P. S. I did use the zip to revert the sd cards file format when returning from aosp so I didn't have to deal with all that "0" and "legacy" nonsense.
Thanks again!
Sent from my Window to the World
P.P.S. I don't really seem to have any data issues so I'm guessing all is well, but I am having an issue where my wifi keeps turning itself on, like multiple times a day. I thought at first I may have been accidently hitting it, but upon further review, nope, not me. Sounds more like a ROM issue to me though, but as it seems like it may pertain I figured I'd bring it up
Sent from my diminishing marginal utility
Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
Okay, so I've been on Tmobile since taking the dive into the wonderful world of Android. I had the S2 for a few months and thdn after becoming infatuated I went out and got me an S3. Recently I decided to move on to Sprint as the coverage I received at work was, well, nonexistent. So, I am completely new to CDMA and my beautiful new Note 2, and after reading through the forums I've discovered that I am bout back to square one. Well, maybe not entirely, but definitely been knocked back quite a bit. Which when considering I've only been involved in the xda community for about 9 months pretty much leaves me with the feeling that I'm stuck in Paris with no map and no translator. So, I was hoping I could reach out to the wise and informed members of xda and ask a broad, but simple, question. What do I need to know so I don't F up my new mistress? I'm not asking for a tutorial on rooting or flashing, nothing generic. Just some helpful specifics. I saw somewhere that they were talking about resetting Wallet before flashing a new ROM or else it may be blocked on the phone, I guess, forever. I'm also unfamiliar with the modems and the updates yall have gotten. Etc, etc. And as I said, not looking for another, what is the benefit of rooting, what is CWM and TWRP, can I get rid of all the darned Sprint apps baloney. I was just hoping to basically just kinda do a crash course intro, a CDMA and/or L900 101 kinda thing so to speak. Any info you can offer up would be greatly appreciated!
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you should have stayed with Tmobile and there 70 dollar unlimited because in a few months to a year you would have had lte and hspa+42 &21 as a fall back before you went to slow data. Im making the jump slowly but surely. My wife is getting the S4 on Tmobile and when the note3 comes out ill be going as well im sick of cdma amd the slow data when there is no LTE
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app
Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
P.P.S. I don't really seem to have any data issues so I'm guessing all is well, but I am having an issue where my wifi keeps turning itself on, like multiple times a day. I thought at first I may have been accidently hitting it, but upon further review, nope, not me. Sounds more like a ROM issue to me though, but as it seems like it may pertain I figured I'd bring it up
Sent from my diminishing marginal utility
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sprint Connection Optimizer will do that
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2
Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
P.P.S. I don't really seem to have any data issues so I'm guessing all is well, but I am having an issue where my wifi keeps turning itself on, like multiple times a day. I thought at first I may have been accidently hitting it, but upon further review, nope, not me. Sounds more like a ROM issue to me though, but as it seems like it may pertain I figured I'd bring it up
Sent from my diminishing marginal utility
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to turn off sprint connection optimizer in setting more settings I believe
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app
budde2 said:
I think you should have stayed with Tmobile and there 70 dollar unlimited because in a few months to a year you would have had lte and hspa+42 &21 as a fall back before you went to slow data. Im making the jump slowly but surely. My wife is getting the S4 on Tmobile and when the note3 comes out ill be going as well im sick of cdma amd the slow data when there is no LTE
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really only made the move due to the fact that T-mobile is the only service provider that gets absolutely no coverage inside my work, and, unfortunately, I work 12 hour days, 4-5 days a week. So, being as my contract was up, I didn't wanna sign up for 2 more years with lte "coming soon." I know you all with Sprint know how that has the possibility of turning out. Plus, just because they were getting lte doesn't mean I'm going to see any improvement at work. Now I'm getting consistent 3g inside work and I'm loving it. Actually typing this inside, infamously, the worst service area in the entire building and still getting an almost constant connection. Occasionally I am getting 4g, not often, but it's happened. Playing around with modems tonight though. Did end up trying LJC after being on MA7,no problems so far, actually seeing improvement. Thanks for the heads up on the Sprint Connection Optimizer, gonna check that out now. Super annoying, especially as I do work 12 hour shifts and with wifi turning randomly on, don't wanna look to see my battery down to nada. That's just the kinda info I was hoping to get here, thanks again!
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2
Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
I really only made the move due to the fact that T-mobile is the only service provider that gets absolutely no coverage inside my work, and, unfortunately, I work 12 hour days, 4-5 days a week. So, being as my contract was up, I didn't wanna sign up for 2 more years with lte "coming soon." I know you all with Sprint know how that has the possibility of turning out. Plus, just because they were getting lte doesn't mean I'm going to see any improvement at work. Now I'm getting consistent 3g inside work and I'm loving it. Actually typing this inside, infamously, the worst service area in the entire building and still getting an almost constant connection. Occasionally I am getting 4g, not often, but it's happened. Playing around with modems tonight though. Did end up trying LJC after being on MA7,no problems so far, actually seeing improvement. Thanks for the heads up on the Sprint Connection Optimizer, gonna check that out now. Super annoying, especially as I do work 12 hour shifts and with wifi turning randomly on, don't wanna look to see my battery down to nada. That's just the kinda info I was hoping to get here, thanks again!
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah the wifi thing Will kill your battery. Sprint is not as bad as everyone thinks and says I have great LTE in 90% of where I go. I'm thinking of going to T-Mobile because I'm sick of cdma devices we are always are considered last ro none over GSM. If sprint keeps up the good work with the LtE and 3g ill be saying. Glad you hot it figured out for rh the most part.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app